Shavuot 5776 The Fiftieth Gate: Tehillim and G-d's Teshuva Towards Us

Lekutei Moharan II:73 -- Rebbe Nachman of Breslov

The person who would like to merit teshuva should say Tehillim regularly, for Tehillim enabalizes teshuva. There are 50 gates of teshuva and every person is able to enter 49 of these gates and to grasp them; however the 50th gate is the idea of "Hashem's personal teshuva"--(if such a thing could even be referred to!) Because also by Hashem we find an aspect of Teshuva, as it is written, "Return to Me and I will return to you." (Malachi 3:7, source 2).

And these 49 gates of teshuva are "spiritually hyperlinked" to the 49 letters found in the names of the twelve tribes of G-d. Because each and every gate has a connection to one of these 49 letters.

Check it out: all of creation desires to be in awe of Your Name; however, not every person merits to make teshuva. There is the one who is lacking any inspiration at all towards teshuva; and even for the person who has inspiration to do teshuva, it is possible that they still do not merit to reach to the letter and the gate of teshuva that is appropriate for them; and even if they arrive to [their special gate], it is possible that their gate will be closed! For all these reasons, a person may not merit to do teshuva.

But through the saying of Tehillim, even the person who has no inspiration towards teshuva will be inspired towards teshuva; and a person can also merit, through Tehillim, to reach the gate and the letter which is appropriate to their soul and to open [their] gate. So we find that one can merit through Tehillim to do teshuva.

This is the aspect of how the rabbis of blessed memory darshened "הֻ֣קַם עָ֔ל" (Shmuel Bet 23-above): שהקים עולה של תשובה--[David] established the yolk of teshuva- (Moed Katan 16b), and [in source 4, David is referred to as] "The sweet singer of Yisrael" [...] for having established Sefer Tehillim. And this is what our rabbis said [commenting on the story of David and Batsheva in Avoda Zara 4b]: "David was only meant to [sin] in order to teach of the possibility of teshuva for the individual."

And so we find the primary teaching for the possibility of teshuva comes through David HaMelech, and the primary teshuva of David HaMelech is Sefer Tehillim, which was brought into the world through ruach hakadosh to allow each and every person to find themselves within it's words and through this, merit to do teshuva.

The primary purification of the twelve tribes of G-d (which are made up of 49 letters and spiritually hyperlinked to the 49 gates of teshuva) is rooted in Mitzraim which is the aspect of the meitzar garon--narrowness of the throat [the place from which the kavana of our tefilla comes into this world], which is linked to teshuva illaah--higher teshuva (as taught by the Ari"zal). Therefore, after the purification begins in Mitzraim, we merit [through learning to cry out Hashem] to be brought out from there, and we then count the 49 days of Sefirat haOmer. And thus, on the 50th day:

וַיֵּ֧רֶד ה' עַל־הַ֥ר סִינַ֖י--And Hashem came down on mount Sinai, which is linked to: And I will return unto you--וְאָשׁ֣וּבָה אֲלֵיכֶ֔ם; this is the aspect of Hashem's own teshuva, the aspect of the 50th Gate.

And this entire teaching is hinted at in the sofei teivot of the first ten words [see above] of the book of Shemot [the beginning of the Exodus narritive], which form the words "Tehillim, Teshuva", since it is through Tehillim that one can merit teshuva, since it is linked to the 49 letters in the names of the Children of Yisrael who are coming to Mitzraim to begin [the process] of purification.